AN infininte amount of time. RM deposits do not change their deposits after a period of time. If you find nothing, either there is nothing there or you need a better sensor power/com ops skill to find it.

THe only time reprospecting would be worth it is either if you do any of the above, or you deplete an existing deposit, in which case it will reroll for a new deposit.

Exhausting an existing deposit is the situation I'm in here Ellias,
I thought at one time I saw data stating you need to wait either a week or a month before trying again, but I can't seem to find that again and I may in fact be wrong about that.. not 100%

So if I re prospect will that only search for the next most likely material (in which case I need do it again repeatedly, or will it search for any and all materials?

There can only 1 type of deposit in a city.
Once it is discovered, it stays there until it is completely depleted.
After that you have again the chance to find something new.
With the same chance as in the first place.

Basically, each terrain square has a certain RM that is present with the relevant prospect number you need to reach to find it. So if you don't find anything, either there is nothing there, or that prospect number is higher than what you can reach. This number will not change over time, so repropsecting with the same sensor power and comp ops skill will always get the same result. Trying with a higher sensor power, or with higher comp ops skill might then get you above the threshold and so find a new deposit.

If you deplete a grid of RMs, then you can prospect immediately if you so wish - it instantly recalcs the RMs present etc.

Yes, thank you Loftano, and thank you again Ellias for your clarity on this, I understand now what Ben was trying to tell me, and yes the current deposit is completely depleted. Although I was hoping perhaps a time delay between attempts at prospecting was a reason for finding no further deposits. But I will have to try again when I can max my comp skill level. Thank you all very much.

Yeah, there is no period of time when the deposit chance will reroll, except once a deposit is depleted.

I like the think that the grids that have no RMs, even when we use the maximum com ops and sensors now do have a deposit, but the numbers are larger than what we can get now. And then once R&D comes, hopefully we can get mining prospector vehicles with even higher sensor power so we can then find them. But I have no idea if that would be true.

So if I'm reading this correctly, if you have level 5 Comp skill and you use 12 SX-65 Groundhog, and you find no deposits, that means there is nothing there since it's impossible to get a higher rating than that correct?

My prospecting team has noticed that any deposits found before the galactic shift have a higher chance of coming up empty once depleted and reprospected.
Slabs that came up empty before the shift have been showing deposits once reprospected.
It's my belief that the score assigned to each slab actually moved with the galactic shift and it has caused some people to question if the deposits get another chance when found to be empty.

Vonar, yes. Although, as I said earlier, if R&D allows for vehicles to be made with even more mining sensors than the Groundhog, such 'empty' grids may then reveal deposits. It just depends on whether grids do allow for 0 RMs to be there, or if every grid has RMs just at such a high threshold value that at the moment it is impossible to uncover.